Failed an SEP exam, passed the resit: what happened, what I changed overnight, and what to do if it is you
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#1 Training in Riyadh, and I failed the first SEP written by two questions and passed the resit the next morning by nine. I am writing this the same week because the failed exam threads on here are all from people who left the course and the ones who stayed do not write. So here is the staying version.
What happened
The exam was on doors, slides and equipment for the first aircraft type. Pass mark 90. I got 88. The two questions I missed were both exact numbers: the quantity of one piece of equipment in one location, and a time limit in one procedure. I knew the procedures. I did not know the two numbers.
The next fourteen hours
The instructor told me at 15:00, privately, and said the resit was at 08:00. She said the thing I needed to hear: 'You know this. You missed numbers. Learn the numbers.' I went to the accommodation, ate, and did not open the manual until I had.
Then: every number in the chapter, on flashcards, one number per card, with the location. Not the procedures, I knew those. Only the numbers. Sixty cards. My flatmate tested me out loud until midnight. Slept six hours, which was more than the night before the first exam, when I had done three.
The resit
08:00, a different paper, same chapter. Ninety seven. Four of the questions were numbers I had had on cards the night before.
What I changed
Sleep before the exam, not study. The three hour night before the first exam was the reason I could not retrieve two numbers I had read. The numbers, tested out loud, not read. And a flatmate, which I had been too proud to ask for in week one.
If it is you
You will feel like the course is over. It is not. One failed exam is expected and the resit is designed for it. Ask the instructor what you missed, specifically. Learn exactly that. Sleep. Sit the resit in the morning as a person who has slept. And do not read the forum threads about people who left, they are not you.
Two more exams this week. I will update.
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#2 Same block, different city, and I know two people on my course who had exactly this: a first fail by one or two questions, all numbers, a pass on the resit with sleep and flashcards. The instructors expect it. Good luck on the next two.
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#3 The 'sleep before the exam, not study' rule is the one that saved me in week three and the one that everyone learns by failing once. You learned it the useful way. Update us.
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#4 Gatwick, week 2, exam on Friday, and this is exactly the thread I needed tonight. Numbers on cards. Flatmate out loud. Bed by ten. Doing it.
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#5 @emmaflies2 bed by ten is the most important line in my post and the hardest to follow. Do it anyway.
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#6 Trainer adjacent, and I want to say from the instructor side: a resit pass with a nine point jump is the most common story in training and it means the person learned how to learn the material. That is worth more than a first time pass. Carry on.
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#7 Not in training yet, and saving this for the night I will inevitably need it. The 'do not read the threads about people who left' line especially.